A Balloon, A Camera And Its Four-Month Journey To West Virginia

A balloon and a camera make their way to West Virginia.(Photo: Flickr)

A message in a bottle.

Or.

A note written on a balloon released into the sky. We’ve all had the urge to, or actually released a balloon into the atmosphere with the hopes that someone in a far away land would discover the balloon, the note and contact you.

A test of curiosity. A social experiment. A bit of luck. That’s what it takes for a balloon to leave the surface and to be found in another land.

ForÂ Eric Walton of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Ohio State and his family, this experiment became a reality. And Walton took it a step further he attached a camera to the end of the balloon.

The video shows the camera lifting off in Upper Arlington, flying over the Ohio State Golf Course, and then flying over Highway 315. We know the video is shaky, it was filmed with a camera tied to a balloon. We know it’s kind of dark in the video, and we know it says it was in August. (It wasn’t in August, this was in December 2013)

Well, hundreds if miles away, someone found the balloon and camera and sent it back.